Harper cabinet unleashes flood of patronage
By Tim Naumetz
THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA_ Weeks before Stephen Harper named some of his closest Tory friends to the Senate, his cabinet quietly approved a flood of appointments to federal boards that also rewarded party faithful.
At least 20 of the 111 appointments made Aug. 4 went to identifiable federal and provincial Conservative donors and supporters.
That includes a failed candidate in Vancouver, a top organizer with the Nova Scotia party, and a would-be Senate nominee from Alberta.
The postings come with per diems of up to $450 for part-time positions and salaries of up to $118,000 a year for full-time posts.
Some of the bodies involved were: the Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada Pension Plan review tribunals, employment insurance referee boards, the parole board, coastal pilotage authorities, port authorities and museum boards.
Nearly a third of the posts were first-time assignments and the remainder were renewals of three-year terms set to expire in late October or November.
The rush of appointments followed a little-noticed series of judicial appointments to superior courts across the country in July.
That round brought the total number of superior court judges appointed by the Harper government to 201 since 2006.
It also further fuelled opposition claims that the prime minister has abandoned election promises of transparency and merit-based public-service and judicial appointments.
Conservative appointments to courts, boards, quasi-judicial tribunals and Crown corporations now total an estimated 3,000 since Harper became prime minister.
The Tories are also closing in on the Liberals in the Senate after Harper's appointment of nine senators Thursday, including at least two close advisers.
Several of the earlier judicial posts went to lawyers with Tory connections.
Lawrence O'Neill is a former Progressive Conservative MP from Nova Scotia whose anti-abortion positions were the subject of controversy when he was named to the bench in 2007.
And Ronald Stevens was a member of the Alberta Conservative party, a sitting member of the legislature, and former attorney general, when he was appointed in May.
Harper has yet to establish his promised Public Appointments Commission to set standards and criteria for cabinet nominations to federal posts. That despite the fact that Treasury Board documents show a four-person secretariat set up to support the commission has cost taxpayers a total of $3.6 million since 2006.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
4 comments:
Wow!!! less than 18% of the appointees have in some way shape or form been connected with the Conservative party or provincial progressive conservative parties.
Cue the outrage.
hardly a surprising move on Harper's part but, I am glad he did it as it once again demonstrates his hypocracy!
Yup. No anti-conservative bias in the MSM. What a brutal headline torque. 18% Conservatives = 'flood of patronage'. Someone has to check the Liberal record. If it was less than 75% I would be shocked.
Don't worry Mr. Morton. Your turn will come I'm sure when the Liberals get back in.
But as the flood of conservative patronage?
What a crock. I seem to remember that the government was taken to task once upon a time for leaving too many positions vacant.
So it's damned if you do and damned if you don't.
and i did love the article where the lede itself trumpets 18% of appointments have conservative party ties
Oh the shock. The horror.
That's writing a headline saying Canadians support the death penalty when in fact only 18% do.
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